Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? / Since their discovery in the Qumran caves beginning in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been the object of intense fascination and extreme controversy. Here Professor Norman Golb intensifies the debate over the scrolls' origins, arguing that they were not the work of a small, desert-dwelling fringe sect, as other scholars have claimed, but written by different groups of Jews and the smuggled out of Jerusalem's libraries before the Roman seige of A.D 70.
Golb also unravels the mystery behind the scholarly monopoly that controlled the scrolls for many years, and discusses his role as a key player in the successful struggle to make the scrolls widely available to both scholars and students. And he pleads passionately for an academic politics and a renewed commitment to the search for the truth in scroll scholarship.
After having researched the Dead Sea Scrolls for more than 30 years, Dr. Golb contends that they were not, as has been traditionally assumed, written by the Essenes or by any one sect, but were instead the work of various Jews who smuggled them out of Jerusalem's libraries in 70 A.D., before Romans attacked the city. 10 photos; 5 maps.
